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Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 - May 6, 1902) was an American poet and fiction writer, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. Life Overview Harte was born in Albany, New York, but when still a boy went to California. He had a somewhat varied career as a teacher, miner, and journalist, and it is as a realistic chronicler of the gold-field and an original humorist that his chief literary triumphs were achieved. Among his best known writings are Condensed Novels, in which he showed great skill as a parodist, The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Idyll of Red Gulch, and The Heathen Chinee. In 1880 he came to Glasgow as U.S. Consul, and from 1885 he lived in London. His writings often show the tenderness and fine feeling that are allied to the higher forms of humour, and he may be said to have created a special form of short story in his Californian tales and prose idylls.John William Cousin, "Harte, Francis Bret," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 179. Web, Jan. 23, 2018. Youth Harte was born in Albany, New York, on August 25, 1836.Scarnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte: Opening the American literary west. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000: 3. ISBN 0-8061-3254-XSome sources say he was born in 1837 or 1839. Even his gravestone has the year 1837. See "Bret Harte Birth Year Set as 1836," Berkeley Daily Gazette, August 15, 1936. Google News, Web, Aug. 24, 2013. He was named Francis Brett Hart after his great-grandfather Francis Brett. When he was young his father changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred to be known by his middle name, but he spelled it with only one "t", becoming Bret Harte. An avid reader as a boy, Harte published his first work at age 11, a satirical poem titled "Autumn Musings," now lost. His formal schooling ended when he was 13 in 1849.Scarnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000: 4. ISBN 0-8061-3254-X California He moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coastal town of Union (now known as Arcata), a settlement on Humboldt Bay that was established as a provisioning center for mining camps in the interior. The 1860 massacre of between 80 and 200 Wiyots killed at the village of Tutulwat was well documented historically and was reported in San Francisco and New York by Harte. When serving as assistant editor for the Northern Californian, Harte editorialized about the slayings while his boss, Stephen G. Whipple, was temporarily absent, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. Harte published a detailed account condemning the event, writing, "a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women wrinkled and decrepit lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbled with their long grey hair. Infants scarcely a span long, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds." After publishing the editorial, his life was threatened and he was forced to flee a month later. Harte quit his job and moved to San Francisco, where an anonymous letter published in a city paper is attributed to him, describing widespread community approval of the massacre. In addition, no one was ever brought to trial, despite the evidence of a planned attack and references to specific individuals, including a rancher named Larabee and other members of the unofficial militia called the Humboldt Volunteers.http://dscholar.humboldt.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/2148/30/1/Crandell.pdf Harte married Anna Griswold on August 11, 1862, in San Rafael, California.Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 64. ISBN 1-57806-253-5 From the start, the marriage was rocky. Some suggested she was handicapped by extreme jealousy while an early biographer of Harte, Henry C. Merwin, privately concluded that she was "almost impossible to live with". His first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared in The Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb. In 1868 he became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, but this one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California. His story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp", appeared in the magazine's second issue, propelling Harte to nationwide fame. When word of Charles Dickens's death reached Bret Harte in July 1870, he immediately sent a dispatch across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the forthcoming publication of his Overland Monthly for 24 hours, so that he could compose the poetic tribute, "Dickens in Camp". This work is considered by many of Harte's admirers as his verse masterpiece, for its evident sincerity, the depth of feeling it displays, and the unusual quality of its poetic expression. Boston Determined to pursue his literary career, in 1871 he and his family traveled back East, to New York City and eventually to Boston, where he contracted with the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly for an annual salary of $10,000, "an unprecedented sum at the time."Scharnhorst, Gary (2001). "Introduction". In Bret Harte, The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings, p. xvi. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-043917-X. His popularity waned, however, and by the end of 1872 he was without a publishing contract and increasingly desperate. He spent the next few years struggling to publish new work (or republish old), delivering lectures about the gold rush, and even selling an advertising jingle to a soap company. Europe In 1878 Harte was appointed to the position of United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany, and then to Glasgow in 1880. In 1885 he settled in London. During the 24 years he spent in Europe, he never abandoned writing, and maintained a prodigious output of stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work. He died in Camberley England in 1902 of throat cancer and is buried at Frimley.[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=vfT5ieZw1WcC&dat=19020506&printsec=frontpage&hl=en Newburgh Daily Journal May 6 1902] His wife, by then known as Anna Bret Harte, died on August 2, 1920. Despite being married for nearly 40 years, the couple had lived together for only 16 of those years.Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 243–244. ISBN 1-57806-253-5 Writing In his Round the World, Andrew Carnegie praised Bret Harte as uniquely American: :A whispering pine of the Sierras transplanted to Fifth Avenue! How could it grow? Although it shows some faint signs of life, how sickly are the leaves! As for fruit, there is none. America had in Bret Harte its most distinctively national poet.[http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext04/7rwrl10.htm Andrew Carnegie, Round the World, The Project Gutenberg EBook] Writing in his autobiography 4 years after Harte's death, however, Mark Twain characterized him and his writing as insincere. He criticized the miners' dialect used by Harte, claiming it never existed outside of his imagination. Twain accused Harte of borrowing money from his friends with no intent to repay and of financially abandoning his wife and children. Other works * Plain Language from Truthful James, known also as The Heathen Chinee, was a satire of racial prejudice in northern California, but was embraced by the American public as a mockery of Chinese immigrants, and shaped anti-Chinese sentiment more than any other work at the time.Scharnhorst, Gary. "Ways That Are Dark": Appropriations of Bret Harte's "Plain Language from Truthful James". Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Dec., 1996), pp. 377-399. * The Stolen Cigar-Case, featuring ace detective "Hemlock Jones", was praised by Ellery Queen as "probably the best parody of Sherlock Holmes ever written".Davies, David Stuart (1998). Shadows of Sherlock Holmes, p. xvii. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 185326-744-9. * The Society upon the Stanislaus is a tragicomic poem, like Plain Language from Truthful James set in the northern California mining camps, and told by the same narrator, "Truthful James". * Nord-Amerika, seine Städte und Naturwunder, sein Land und seine Leute was authored by Austrian Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, with contributions by others including Harte. Recognition His poem "What the Bullet Sang" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900]."What the Bullet Sang". Arthur Quiller-Couch, editor, Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919). Bartleby.com, Web, May 5, 2012. In 1987 he appeared on a $5 U.S. Postage stamp as part of the "Great Americans series" of issues.Scott catalog # 2196. Legacy The following places are named for Harte: *Bret Harte Place in San Francisco, California; *Bret Harte Lane, Bret Harte Road, and Harte Ave. in San Rafael, California; *Bret Harte Lane in Humboldt Hill, California; *Bret Harte Road in Frimley (the town in which Harte was buried); *Bret Harte Park in Danville, California; *Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp, California; *Bret Harte High School in Altaville, California; *Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose, California; *Bret Harte Middle School in Oakland, California; *Bret Harte Middle School in Hayward, California; *Bret Harte Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois; *Bret Harte Elementary in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; *Bret Harte House, at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California; *The town of Twain Harte, California (named after Harte and Mark Twain). Dramatic and musical adaptations * Several film versions of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" have been made, including one in 1937 with Preston Foster and another in 1952 with Dale Robertson. Tennessee's Partner (1955) with John Payne and Ronald Reagan was based on a story of the same name. Paddy Chayefsky's treatment of the film version of Paint Your Wagon seems to borrow from "Tennessee's Partner": two close friends—one named "Pardner"—share the same woman. The spaghetti western Four of the Apocalypse is based on "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" and "The Luck of Roaring Camp". *Operas based on "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" include those by Samuel Adlerhttp://dram.nyu.edu/dram/note.cgi?id=8801 and by Stanford Beckler.Organization at pikappalambda.capital.edu * The Beulah song "Ballad of the Lonely Argonaut" references "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "Outcasts of Poker Flat" and asks, "How does it feel to roam this land like Harte and Twain did?" Publications Poetry *''The Lost Galleon, and other tales. San Francisoo, CA: Towne & Bacon, 1867. *"Plain Language from Truthful James". ''Overland Monthly, 1870 **''The Heathen Chinee: A poem. Chicago: Western News, 1870; Boston: Oliver Ditson / Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, 1870; Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1871. *East and West: Poems. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1871; London: John Cameron Hotten, 1871. *''The Poetical Works of Bret Harte. Boston: Osgood, 1872; London: Routledge, 1872. *''Echoes of the Foot-Hills. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1875. *''The Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte. London: Chatto & Windus, 1886. *''Some Later Verses''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1898. *''Complete Poetical Works. New York: P.F. Collier, 1902. *Dickens in Camp. San Francisco, CA: John Howell, 1922. Plays *Two Men of Sandy Bar: A drama. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876. *''Sue: A play in three acts. London: Greening, 1902. Novels *''Condensed Novels. Boston: Osgood, 1871; Toronto: Canadian News, 1871. **''The Condensed Novels of Bret Harte. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Literature House, 1969. *''Gabriel Conroy. London: F. Warne, 1875. *Thankful Blossom: A romance of the Jerseys, 1779. New York: Puck, 1875; Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1877. *The Story of a Mine. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1877; London: Routledge, 1877. *In the Carquinez Woods. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. *By Shore and Sedge. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1885; London: Longmans Green, 1885. *Maruja. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1885. *Snow-Bound at Eagle's. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1886; London: Ward & Downey, 1886. *The Crusade of the 'Excelsior'.'' Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin / Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1887. *''A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready. New York: Harper, 1886; London: F.V. White, 1887. *Devil's Ford. London: F.V. White, 1887. **''A MIllionaire of Rough-and-Ready and Devil's Ford. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1887 *''A Phyllis of the Sierras and A Drift from Redwood Camp. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1888; London: Chatto & Windus, 1888. *The Argonauts of North Liberty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1888; London: Spencer Blackett, 1888. *Cressy. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1889; London: Macmillan, 1889. *Flip and Found at Blazing Star. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1889. *A Ward of the Golden Gate. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890; London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. *A Waif of the Plains. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1890; London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. *A First Family of Tasajara. London & New York: Macmillan, 1891. *Susy: A story of the plains. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1893; London: Chatto & Windus, 1893. *In a Hollow of the Hills. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1895; London: Chapman & Hall, 1895. *Clarence. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1895; London: Chatto & Windus, 1895. *Three Partners; or, The big strike on Heavy Tree Hill. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1897; London: Chatto & Windus, 1897. *From Sand Hill to Pine. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1900; London: C.A. Pearson, 1900. *Condensed Novels: New burlesques. New York: P.F. Collier, 1902; London: Chatto & Windus, 1902. *Salomy Jane. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1910; London: Chatto & Windus, 1910. Short fiction *The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other sketches. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1869. *''Stories of the Sierras, and other sketches (with Joaquin Miller). London: J.C. Hotten, 1872. *''Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands, and other sketches. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1873; London: Routledge, 1873. *Tales of the Argonauts, and other sketches. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1875. *Wan Lee, The Pagan, and other stories. New York: Ward, Lock, 1876; London: Routledge, 1876. *Drift from Two Shores. Boston: Houghton Osgood, 1878. *The Twins of Table Mountain, and other stories. Boston: Houghton Osgood, 1879. *In the Carquinez Woods. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. *On the Frontier. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1884; London: Longmans Green, 1884. *Jeff Briggs's Love Story, and other sketches''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1880. *''Frontier Stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1887. *Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation, and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1889. *The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh, and other tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1889; London & New York: Macmillan, 1889. *A Sappho of Green Springs, and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. *Colonel Starbottle's Client, and some other people. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1892; New York: Regent Press, 1892. *Sally Dows, etc.'' Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1893; London: Chatto & Windus, 1893. *''A Protege of Jack Hamlin's, and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1894. *The Bell-Ringer of Angel's, and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1894. *The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other tales. Boston & New YOrk: Houghton Mifflin, 1896. *Barker's Luck, and other stories. Boston & New YOrk: Houghton Mifflin, 1896. *Stories in Light and Shadow. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1898; London: George Bell, 1898. *Tales of Trail and Town. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1898; London: Chatto & Windus, 1898. *Under the Redwoods. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1901. *Openings in the Old Trail. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1902 **published in England as ''On the Old Trail: Tales. London: C.A. Pearson, 1902. *''A Treasure of the Redwoods, and other tales. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1903. *Trent's Trust, and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1903; London: Eveleigh Nash, 1903. *A Niece of Snapshot Harry's, and other tales. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1903. *Tennessee's Partner. San Francisco, CA, & New York: P. Elder, 1907. *''The Story of Enriquez: Chu Chu, The Devotion of Enriquez, The passing of Enriquez. San Francisco, CA: E. & R. Grabhorn, 1924. *''Bret Harte's Stories of the Old West''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940; New York: Somerset Books, 1940. *''Bret Harte: Representative selections''. New York & Cincinnati, OH: American Book Co., 1941. *''Tales of the Gold Rush'' (edited by Fletcher Martin). New York: Heritage Press, 1944. *''Selected Stories of Bret Harte. Chicago: Puritan, 1946?; New York: Caxton, 1946. *''The Best Short Stories of Bret Harte. New York: Modern Library, 1947. *''Harte of the West: 17 stories by Bret Harte''. New York: Dell, 1966. *''Bret Harte's Gold Rush: "Outcasts of Poker Flat", "The Luck of Roaring Camp", "Tennessee's Partner", and other favorites . Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1997. Non-fiction *The Lectures of Bret Harte'' (edited by Charles Meecker Kozlay). Brooklyn, NY: privately printed, 1909. *''Sketches of the Sixties: Being Forgotten Material Now Collected for the First Time from the "Californian", 1864-67'' (with Mark Twain). San Francisco, CA: J. Howell, 1927. Juvenile *''The Outcasts of Poker Flat''. Overland Monthly, 1869; San Francisco, CA: Beck-Gerlach, 1931; New York: New American Library, 1961. **(illustrated by John Keeley). Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1980. *''The Little Drummer; or, The Christmas gift that came to Rupert. London: J.C. Hotten, 1872. *The Queen of the Pirate Isle'' (illustrated by Kate Greenway). London: Chatto & Windus, 1886. Collected editions *''The Writings of Bret Harte. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin (Riverside edition), 1871. *The Select Works of Bret Harte in Prose and Poetry'' (edited by J. Montesquieu Bellew). London: Chatto & Windus, 1872. *''The Complete Works of Bret Harte''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1880. *''The Writings of Bret Harte, in 20 volumes''. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin (Overland edition), 1896-1914. *''Poems and Stories'' (edited by Charles Swain Thomas). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1912. *''Stories and Poems, and other uncollected writings'' (edited by Charles Meeker Kozloy). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914. *''The Works of Bret Harte''. Roslyn, NY: Black Readers' Service, 1932. Letters *''The Letters of Bret Harte'' (edited by Geoffrey Bret Harte). Boston & New YOrk: Houghton Mifflin, 1926; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1926. *''Bret Harte's California: Letters to the "Springfield Republican" and "Christian Register", 1866-1867.'' *''Selected Letters of Bret Harte'' (edited by Gary Scharnhorst). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat..Search results = au:Bret Harte, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 24, 2013. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems * "What the Bullet Sang". *Brett Harte at the Poetry Archive (6 poems). *The Poetry of Bret Harte, Central California Poetry Journal (9 poems). * Francis Bret Harte at PoemHunter (126 poems). ;Prose *Bret Harte at Bartleby.com *Bret Harte at American Literature. ;Books * *Bret Harte at the Online Books Page *Complete bibliography ;Audio / video *Works by Bret Harte at LibriVox (audiobooks) *Bret Harte at YouTube ;About *Bret Harte in the Encyclopædia Britannica * Bret Harte at NNDB * *Bret Harte Photographs part of the Nineteenth Century Notables Digital Collection at Gettysburg College *Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of The Bret Harte and Mark Twain Collaboration Co-author play "Ah Sin" 1877, The Main Character and Namesake Ah Sin Comes to Deadwood 1883 *""Plain Language from Truthful James" ;Etc. *Guide to the Bret Harte Collection at The Bancroft Library Category:1836 births Category:1902 deaths Category:American writers Category:People from Albany, New York Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:19th-century poets Category:American poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:American novelists Category:19th-century novelists Category:American short story writers